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Play Malphite if enemy is physical damage base, Kayle if you need that ranged autoattack/ your carry lack escape (aka Kog, Vayne who do huge damage as long as they are alive) and Jax in other situations.

Akali is only good if you can snowball, not a really good pick as most current ap mid has AoE skillshots that is really good at punishing akali before she is 6, morg is banned often, ryze is good

Alistar is always banned, Jax lack the moeny in the jungle, Udyr will be good only if your team need a tanky frontline, as Udyr is actually weak against dash if the enemy has any.

ADC is fine, recommend picking up either Ezreal or Graves for strong early game even if the enemy pick corki

In April I hit 1850 Elo. I got to see some of the really great people play who had come down, even played against Reginald once and won. Since April, it's been a steady freefall in Elo. Win one game, lose two, repeat. I'm now down to 1629. I don't believe that my skill has decreased, if anything I've gotten better. Now I can play more champions and understand the matchups even better. However, I am finding it impossible to win games and I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to stop playing completely.

As for playstyle, I've always gone by the simple rules of 1. Don't die, 2. Help your teammates not die, 3. Take towers down and grab objectives. 2 and 3 are becoming increasingly difficult. I've tried duoing with people but it hasn't slowed the freefall.

I have an explanation of why but I wanted to see if you knew any reason why I would be consistently losing from April to August.

Overall I think your playstyle is too passive. I checked your match history and most of the time you have little death, but also a rather low amount of kills and assists for any champions that you are playing.

For example, a game that you are playing Janna shouldn't end at 25 minutes with 0 death and only 3 assists on you. Often time Janna should be able to contribute more than just 3 kills, not to mention that your AD carry has 3 death in that match, so it should be possible for you to die instead of corki, at least for one of the three deaths.

At the same time, current meta is really focusing on winning by gaining the upper hand in term of map control, not just farming. I do not think GP is a good solo top as many solo top can easily beat him in term of damage, and later in the game you won't do as much as the others unless you land that ultimate perfectly. Personally I will recommend you to switch to other solo top.

Finally, you are playing really really safe, you don't even plan on taking ignite on AD carry, which is one of the biggest tool that they can use to establish the lane dominance with kills. Enemy AD behind one kill will often lose half level advantage, that is a huge part especially when you are at 6 and they are at 5. Corki and Graves both have real strong burst early game, and there is no reason for you to go heal every single time.

**Note: CV on support is still good, but you must be able to keep track of the enemy jungler 24/7 for that full map control, i am not sure whether you have the map awareness to do so or not, but I am pretty sure that exhaust will allow you to get more kills at bottom lane.

Overall I think your playstyle is too passive. I checked your match history and most of the time you have little death, but also a rather low amount of kills and assists for any champions that you are playing.

For example, a game that you are playing Janna shouldn't end at 25 minutes with 0 death and only 3 assists on you. Often time Janna should be able to contribute more than just 3 kills, not to mention that your AD carry has 3 death in that match, so it should be possible for you to die instead of corki, at least for one of the three deaths.

At the same time, current meta is really focusing on winning by gaining the upper hand in term of map control, not just farming. I do not think GP is a good solo top as many solo top can easily beat him in term of damage, and later in the game you won't do as much as the others unless you land that ultimate perfectly. Personally I will recommend you to switch to other solo top.

Finally, you are playing really really safe, you don't even plan on taking ignite on AD carry, which is one of the biggest tool that they can use to establish the lane dominance with kills. Enemy AD behind one kill will often lose half level advantage, that is a huge part especially when you are at 6 and they are at 5. Corki and Graves both have real strong burst early game, and there is no reason for you to go heal every single time.

**Note: CV on support is still good, but you must be able to keep track of the enemy jungler 24/7 for that full map control, i am not sure whether you have the map awareness to do so or not, but I am pretty sure that exhaust will allow you to get more kills at bottom lane.

One of the reasons I was able to get to 1850 was because I played support and was able to consistently keep track of the enemy jungler with CV. When I switched to taking exhaust was in June, and I believe taking exhaust contributed to my downfall. I only started taking CV again today.

Top is a position that I do not know how to play nor do I play it well. I try to avoid playing top at all costs. However when I am forced to play top, GP and Malphite are my go to champions. I just try not to lose and teleport in when needed.

I don't understand this "Often time Janna should be able to contribute more than just 3 kills, not to mention that your AD carry has 3 death in that match, so it should be possible for you to die instead of corki, at least for one of the three deaths." I get that sometimes, when you can die in place of your AD carry, you should. I know to try to bodyblock skillshots from Corki, Ez, Ashe, Cait, and if an opportunity presents itself to die I should, but I'm not going to forcefully put myself into a position to die for them. Is that what you are saying? I doubt you have a video example of such but if you do I'd like to see it.

The game that you are referencing had a total of 6 kills on my team, 4 of which were on top lane. My 3 assists were 2 from my lane and 1 from top lane. Can't be in two places at once. The 1600s is a place where you still find blatant feeders, 0-8 mid lane in 20 minutes is commonplace.

I just find it hard to play when I see people literally marching off to their death and I can't do anything about it.

For Example:
Bot kills ADC
Enemy support is still there, sides are warded

When do you go back? Do you farm a wave then go back? Do you stay in lane and wait for the enemy to come back? If you wait too long they'll catch up in level and have items. Then they'll have the upperhand. What is the best strategy here?

Normally I just farm and push all the waves at the tower so that the tower takes the exp and gold, then go B.

For Example:
Bot kills ADC
Enemy support is still there, sides are warded

When do you go back? Do you farm a wave then go back? Do you stay in lane and wait for the enemy to come back? If you wait too long they'll catch up in level and have items. Then they'll have the upperhand. What is the best strategy here?

Normally I just farm and push all the waves at the tower so that the tower takes the exp and gold, then go B.

Right after you kill the enemy, it is probably the best for you to shove the lane, not to the turret but at least killing as many minions as you can, then just recall. It is the best if the tower can eat all the minions without leaving any to the ad or support, but most of the time that won't happen, nonetheless it is still good to make them lose some of the minions by killing all the minions

I just played very aggressively. It didn't help. I was paired with a Soraka that did not ward, and was consistently typing and not playing the game. This is in the 1600s. I ended up going even in CS and then doing well mid-game during teamfights. However this player kept dying the entire game, and in obvious situations walked into the entire team.

League of Legends is not about player skill, its not about warding, map control, or anything tangible. Its about the luck of who is on your team and who is not. I can't get better as a player because of the way the matchmaking system is designed. I am not able to play against better people unless I find them, and when I do find them they do not want to play with me unless I have a high rating from the system.

When I previously played first person shooters, I could let my skill dictate who I played against, and they could easily tell if I was good or not. That is not the case in this game, the League of Luck.

I just hit 3200 IP and I'm having a lot of fun with tanky junglers like nunu and udyr. I want to expand my arsenal and I was wondering whether to go for nautilus or volibear?

Nautilus- Tanky, lots of CC that remains scary even in late game. However, no sustain except for his shield and it's easy to overlap his CC. Also, can he top against champs that are currently dominating top?

Volibear- Dat passive, fling, slow, decent finisher, aoe ult, AS items like wit's end are viable on him. Late game viability? Can HE top against champs that are currently dominating top?

Also, I'm a fan of playing both of these champs as supports just because of the CC and tankiness. As volibear, I can keep my ADC safe from ignites as the enemy ADC will try to counter my passive. As naut, I have so much CC and damage that I can effectively lock down the enemy.

My ideal late game build is - Sorc boots, Deathcap, Zhonyas, Rylai's, Void staff and WotA.
It seems like a solid build, but would you at any time suggest an Athene's, or maybe a DFG?

Even though Brand has some problem with mana in a long fight, I do not recommend getting Athene's or DFG. Brand is strong at AoE damage and not single target burst, and thus the reason why he is so strong in a team fight. Your current build seems to be good and have no reason to change it unless you need DFG to burst down specific champion on the enemy team.

I just hit 3200 IP and I'm having a lot of fun with tanky junglers like nunu and udyr. I want to expand my arsenal and I was wondering whether to go for nautilus or volibear?

Nautilus- Tanky, lots of CC that remains scary even in late game. However, no sustain except for his shield and it's easy to overlap his CC. Also, can he top against champs that are currently dominating top?

Volibear- Dat passive, fling, slow, decent finisher, aoe ult, AS items like wit's end are viable on him. Late game viability? Can HE top against champs that are currently dominating top?

Also, I'm a fan of playing both of these champs as supports just because of the CC and tankiness. As volibear, I can keep my ADC safe from ignites as the enemy ADC will try to counter my passive. As naut, I have so much CC and damage that I can effectively lock down the enemy.

I can speak for DFG that it is better reserved for assasins like akali or diana. As for Athene's, you'll have to wait for Ken.

I vote for Naut. While Voilbear is so much stronger in term of fighting ability, Naut's ultimate can completely stop the enemy carry from doing damage for a good 2 seconds (Every single AD carry will basically run back when they see that ultimate, allowing your team to do damage while their carry doesn't) and thus lock her down in any major battle.

Although Voilbear is much stronger in term of fighting ability (AoE slow with a strong finisher) He lacks a crowd control that can be apply to the enemy carry right away. Often he will have to run pass the whole enemy team before he can do anything to the carry, but Naut can easily do it within a decent range.

Naut top is not popular but there have been some success with it (Same thing goes with Blitz top). The problem with Naut top generally is that he is rather slow, making when the junglers gank either a hit or a miss. In lane he is also weaker than most solo top, and have major problem when he is facing ranged solo top such as Kennen, Vlad, or Nidalee, as he lacks a strong ranged gap closer (his anchor will be stop by minions)